Friday, December 31, 2010

End of Year Message 2010

Greetings fellow Citizens of Byzantium,

We have successfully completed our first calendar year in our effort to manifest a new Byzantine State!

In the 557th year after the fall of Constantinople this community has been formed to reawaken Byzantium as a living civilization and culture.

Our goals are simple; to continue the story of Byzantine history by renewing Byzantine community, to rebuild as much of the Byzantine world as is possible by legal and peaceful means, and to work toward the dream of someday founding a new symbolic Byzantine Capitol. This would be the ultimate proof that Byzantine civilization, the heir to Classical Greece and Rome, has not completely perished.

Although our goals are simple the work to achieve them is not. Byzantium is little known or remembered in these days. Far too often it is overshadowed by other historical eras and dismissed as an odd sidenote of history. Such ignorance and dismissal is absurd - Byzantium was the jewel of Western civilization for over a thousand years with as important a history and legacy as any empire before or since.

We here are proof that the Byzantine Empire is worthy of not just honor, but also continuation. By declaring our intent to carry on the functions and traditions of this ancient civilization, we directly continue its work and reestablish a valid place for it in the world.

Through this endeavor we are both renewing an ancient legacy and making a contribution to future history. By agreeing to manifest Byzantium anew we have undertaken the responsibility to fill - and to heal - a void which has been left in Western civilization. Our existence as a community and as a serious sovereignty project is significant! It is now up to us to prove that we truly can rebuild some of what has been lost for centuries.

In these first ten months we have made a wonderful start. We began with nothing. We now have:

1. A living international community which makes Byzantine Citizenship available to all and which has continued to expand each month.

2. A public declaration of our serious intent which is visible worldwide.

3. A Byzantine Internet presence that is now extant all over the world and still growing.

4 A working Byzantine government to administer this living Byzantine community.

5. The beginnings of local Byzantine communities (Provinces) in many areas of the world.

6. Working Byzantine Culture interest groups working to restore participation in Things Byzantine.

7. A foundation for a Byzantine Militarium to promote Byzantine Living History, both military and civilian.

8. The comencement of Byzantine Charity toward worthy causes worldwide.

9. A Marketplace which we hope will be the seed for a renewed Byzantine economy for our community.

10. A spiritual foundation for the Byzantine Orthodox Church in our community, as well as something of the Classical religions that came before.

With this new effort and infrastructure the Byzantine Empire has begun to awaken from centuries of sleep.

None of these things could have been done without the Citizens of Byzantium Novum. I would like to thank each of you for being willing to be counted as Byzantine Citizens, and for your work in helping to build our community. We are all stewards of a cultural legacy, as well as Founders of a new nation. Anyone willing to undertake such roles is worthy of respect and acknowledgement. Many heartfelt and sincere thanks to each Citizen!

Byzantium Novum has much to look forward to in 2011! In this New Year we will be working to grow the number of Byzantine Citizens, and set a firm foundation for our Provinces. We will work to expand appreciation of and participation in "Things Byzantine." We will participate in efforts to preserve and explore Byzantine history. In short, we will continue what we've started in the knowledge that our cause is worthwhile. It is an effort that will not only enrich our own lives, but the world around us for generations to come.

May each of us, and Byzantium Novum, have a blessed, prosperous and wonderful 2011!

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator, Byzantium Novum

Sunday, December 26, 2010

State of the Nation - December 2010

Greetings all,

December has been another good month for Byzantium Novum! We are in our 10th month, and currently have reached a total of 135 Citizens, a gain of 11 for the month.

As of this morning Byzantium Novum has 1,633 Facebook contacts on our page located at:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/ByzantiumNovum . We'll be doing more announcements there after the holidays as this has continued to be a good resource for us.

This month our lists have been active and we've had some wonderful new folks join the public forums! The Senate has continued to do business and is currently voting on some minor changes to the Byzantium Novum flag, and the appointment of new Eparchs for the various Provinces. Updates have also been made to the main website. It has been great to see our community busy even during the holiday season.

We are already working to make 2011 an even better year - with more growth and more local opportunities for participation in "things Byzantine!"

The only sad news this month comes from a situation beyond our control - the Turkish government has continued with its plans to flood the Roman archaeological site at Allianoi. The entire site has been covered with sand in an effort to "preserve" it. The archaeological community believes this will not only be no protection, but due to mineral conditions will actually hasten the complete obliteration of the site while it is under water. Last minute efforts to halt the flooding continue.

I would like to remind everyone that it is still NOT TOO LATE to email the Turkish embassy and protest this action. It seems unlikely that the Turkish government will halt this project and that is a tragedy. This is a huge loss to Roman/Byzantine history but hopefully we will be able to act for the preservation of other Byzantine Heritage sites in the future.

May everyone have a great holiday as we look forward to continuing to restore Byzantium in 2011!


-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator, Byzantium Novum

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Byzantium Novum - State of the Nation November 2010

Greetings all,

November has been a good and active month for Byzantium Novum, despite the fact we are heading into the holidays!

We are now in our ninth month since our founding. We now have a total of 124 Citizens, a gain of 10 for this month. Not bad at all during a time when many people were busy with the Thanksgiving holiday in the US!

As of this morning Byzantium Novum has 1,560 Facebook contacts on our page located at:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/ByzantiumNovum . We now have so many friends the system only allows us to add those who contact us so we are definitely getting attention. We did put out a request for Citizens on Facebook this month and have had at least three people join from there.

Our online cause to protest the destruction of the ancient Roman hospital archaeological site in Allianoi, Turkey has been going well, and we now have 297 people participating! Hopefully all have sent messages to the Turkish Embassy requesting that the reservoir project intended to flood the site forever be halted at least until proper archaeology can be done. The link to the cause page is here: http://www.causes.com/causes/532756/about?m

This month Byzantium Novum also added two new discussion forums:

The first is the Byzantium Novum Foreign Ministry, located at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ByzantiumNovumForeignMinistry/?yguid=457948310

This group is dedicated to the study of the cultures which surrounded ancient Byzantium and it also serves as a contact point for other nations today. All are welcome to join!

The second group is the Byzantium Novum New Citizens List, located at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ByzantiumNovumNewCitizens/

This group is a welcoming and orientation point for new (and potential) Citizens to learn more about our community, ask questions, and more. All are welcome to join, and we hope to see many of our experienced Citizens there so they can help new folks make their Byzantine experience a pleasant one!

Both these sites will be linked to the main Byzantium Novum site shortly. :)

Again a reminder about our Citizen Map located at: http://www.communitywalk.com/byzantium_novum/map/543922 .

All Citizens are able to personalize their info by adding a comment to their listing. If anyone is unsure of which point represents their location, just email us at ByzantiumNovum@aol.com.

Byzantium Novum is heading into it's first Christmas / Winter Solstice. Hopefully Byzantium will continue to stay active and gain new members during this busy time.

I wish everyone a happy and peaceful holiday season!

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator, Byzantium Novum

Monday, October 25, 2010

Byzantium Novum State of the Nation - October 2010

State of the Nation - October 2010

Greetings all,

October has been another good month for Byzantium Novum! It has now been eight months since our founding, and we currently have 114 official Citizens. This is an average of 14 new Citizens each month, which is quite good for a beginning micronational sovereignty project!

A reminder, our Citizen map is located at: http://www.communitywalk.com/byzantium_novum/map/543922 . Citizens are able to personalize their map point by adding a comment. If anyone is unsure of which point represents their location, just email us at ByzantiumNovum@aol.com.

As of this morning Byzantium Novum has 1,481 Facebook contacts on our page located at:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/ByzantiumNovum . For the past three months all new contacts have been from people finding us and sending friend requests, so our presence is getting out there! This has also been a great forum to broadcast information about our micronation.

Perhaps the biggest news of the month is that Byzantium Novum has started a public campaign to protest the destruction of the ancient Roman city and hospital archaeological site at Allianoi, in Turkey. This large site, which was populated well into the Byzantine era, is scheduled to be flooded for a backup reservoir in a local dam project. There has been no time to do proper archaeology at this site. Byzantium Novum has been publishing to many forums to ask people to write respectful letters to the Turkish Government and point out the value of this site, and how it can benefit Turkey more as a historical site than as a lake.

So far we have officially recruited 165 people to the protest cause, and have hopefully influenced many more people to email the Turkish Embassy in their country. This has been our nations first public project and even though the project schedule has left us little promotion time we have done very well!

In other news, the Byzantium Novum Senate has begun its first official vote. Vote topics include the establishment of a group to study the cultures around ancient Byzantium, including those cultures that were part of Byzantine Provinces, ratification of some of our founding documents, and organization structure of the provinces of Byzantium Novum. The Byzantium Novum Senate list archives are public and can always be viewed at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ByzantiumNovumSenate/

The only downside of this month is that it has been a very busy month for many of our Citizens, myself included. Traffic on our public forums has been slower than expected. Keeping these lists active is important not only for keeping our Citizens involved, but also to show visitors that our community is indeed active! I have been involved in some large projects that will end by the end of the month, and hope to do much more posting myself. Hopefully other Citizens will get some discussion going also. :)

Finally, I would like to once again thank all Citizens who have helped Byzantium Novum by continuing to list us on Craig's List. This has been hugely helpful in getting the word out and letting new Citizens find us! Thank you!!

Hopefully November will continue to be a productive month for Byzantium - and that our protest cause will be helpful in saving the archaeological site in Turkey.

Hail Byzantium !

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Join Byzantium Novum in protesting the destruction of the ancient Roman Hospital of Galen!


Byzantium Novum has begun an international campaign save the archaeological site of the ancient Roman "Hospital of Galen" from destruction by the Turkish Government.

An article on this situation can be found here:

http://tinyurl.com/2fkmcj7


We are encouraging people worldwide to send a polite letter or email to the Turkish Embassy in their country, reminding them that this is not a sound financial decision. This well known ancient site is worth more money to Turkey than their proposed destructive public works project would be!

Byzantium Novum has started a Facebook campaign to get the word out:

http://www.causes.com/causes/532756/about?m=ba32d54d

And we are also asking people with a Facebook account to join this cause and forward it to their friends.

Please help Byzantium Novum stop this project! If it cannot be stopped forever, it should at least be halted until the proper archaeological study and preservation recommended by the scientific archaeological community can be done!

Monday, September 27, 2010

State of the Nation - September 2010

Greetings all,

September has been a very good month for Byzantium Novum. The most important news is that we have passed our first big milestone, and now have over 100 official Citizens! Our Citizen Map at http: //www.communitywalk.com/byzantium_novum/map/543922 is starting to fill up with points. The official Citizen count stands at 103 so we're on our way toward 200... :)

We now have 1,350 Facebook contacts, which means we continue to be seen and maintain a positive and growing public presence. Not only will we continue to gain Citizens from that forum, it provides us with a means of getting news out should it be needed.

The Byzantium Novum Senate has been more active. Currently we have been discussing the organization of local Provinces and Themes. It has been agreed that we will be going with Greek terminology for the most part, and Senator Badvila has translated all terms into Latin and English as well. His chart on Province organization will be up on the website soon!

This month our micronation received a very fair writeup in a Medieval blog: http://vaultingvellum.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-byzantium-micronation-now-on.html which shows that our advertising on Craig's List has continued to be seen. Once again I would like to thank *everyone* who has volunteered to post ads for Byzantium Novum in the Groups section for their areas Craig's List! Each time we do that new people see that Byzantium is alive and growing again. Getting the word out in this way is one of the most effective ways any of us can help rebuild Byzantium. THANK YOU for your help...

October should be a good month for Byzantium Novum. The seasonal weather will mean more people are inside and on the Internet - so more people will see us and our forums will get more traffic.

Continuing to build "on the Internet" now will help us to gain enough "critical mass" to start local chapters going and get out into the physical world with gatherings and events. That is really what we're working toward - our "virtual" community is fun and interesting, but everything will become much more meaningful and rewarding once we're meeting face to face! :)

I wish everyone a healthy and happy Autumn. Hail Byzantium!

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator, Byzantium Novum

Sunday, August 29, 2010

State of the Nation - August 2010

Greetings all,


Byzantium Novum has continued to do very well through the month of August. We currently have 92 Citizens, an increase of 16 Citizens in the last month! This is excellent and steady growth, and hopefully it will even increase as we get into the Fall and Winter months and people take more time online! :)

We currently have 1,277 "Facebook Friends," which is another indication that people are "seeing" us and are interested enough to stay in contact. We will try for a new membership push this next month after people have settled into the new school year routine...

I am very pleased to announce that two new Senators have been voted into the Byzantium Novum Senate; Badvila Chalkeus and Exarch Matyas.

Both of these Citizens have remained interested and active on the lists, and have good organizational backgrounds. I am sure that the will be assets to the Senate and that the extra assistance there will be important for building new infrastructure for Byzantium Novum.

Please do join me in welcoming Badvila and Exarch Matyas as Byzantium Novum's latest Senators!

An interesting occurrence in August was that we had our first (and happily minor) disagreement on the main list. We have been over seven months without a single harsh word being spoken among our Citizens, which is a testament to the great people that are finding us! Happily the situation was over quickly and we've been able to prove that we can weather a storm. :) Many thanks to everyone that helped to keep the list friendly and on topic!

September should be an active month. With the new Senators we should be able to easily field a quorum for business, no matter how busy people get. It is "back to school" time in many places, but usually that means more Internet activity and that is hopefully a good thing.

We have even started talking about the possibility of a local gathering, which is a great thing to be able to even discuss in our first year!

Many thanks as always to everyone who has helped advertise Byzantium Novum in the "Groups" section of Facebook. We're doing everything we can to get the word out, and obviously it's working!

I look forward to seeing everyone on the lists in September. Long live Byzantium!

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator

Monday, July 26, 2010

State of the Nation - July 2010

Greetings all,

Here is the Byzantium Novum status update for July 2010:


Our new nation continues to do well. As of today we have a total of 76 official Citizens! Our steady growth is a good sign, and means that our Internet presence is continuing to expand.

Currently on Facebook we have 1,180 "friends", which means we continue to be seen by more people with an interest in "things Byzantine" each month.

The big news for this month is that Lars Brownworth, author of "Lost to the West" has become a Citizen of Byzantium Novum! This is a wonderful thing since he's rather a hero around here... the Literature Sodalitas has been studying his book! His "Byzantine name" is Theophilos, and hopefully he'll get a chance to visit the forums from time to time. He also has an excellent website up at http://www.larsbrownworth.com/, and his blog is at: http://www.larsbrownworth.com/blog/ . It looks like he does speaking engagements... perhaps as our numbers grow and we're able to put on events we might be able to hire him to speak at a convention!

In other news, we have located a discussion group for living descendants of the Komnenos dynasty. There has been no discussion with them as yet, (and there likely will be none until we've grown substantially) but it is amazing to know that there are people out there from this august Byzantine lineage. This is yet another sign that Byzantium is indeed not "gone" but has simply been dispersed.

Summer weather and activities have continued to take their toll on the Internet forums - July was a quiet month for the various lists. This happens all over the Internet of course, and we can expect a renewed flow of traffic at the end of August as people get forced indoors. In the meantime, we are working on some new infrastructure, including a visual redesign on the Byzantium Novum website. Hopefully we'll be able to get the updates online soon!

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator, Byzantium Novum

Sunday, June 27, 2010

State of the Nation - June 2010

Greetings all,

Here is the Byzantium Novum status report for June, 2010:

Although the Summer months are traditionally the slowest for the Internet, Byzantium Novum is continuing to do well.

We currently have a total of 65 Citizens, which is an average of 11 Citizens per month since our official founding. That number is well above average for micronational projects. With that number of citizens and our stable and growing infrastructure (including a professional web site, active forums, and professional advertising) we're easily already in the top 25 percent of the most successful MicroNations in world history. Not bad for our first six months!

Our biggest success in the last month has been Citizen participation in advertising Byzantium Novum in their local area on Craig's List. This has raised our public profile considerably and we've gained several new Citizens as a result. THANK YOU to everyone who has been willing to participate! Byzantium Novum will continue to grow if we continue to do this... :)

We have continued to advertise in other places as well, and as of this morning Byzantium Novum has 1,090 "friends" on Facebook. We're doing what we can to get the word out that Byzantium is coming back to life!

There will be at least some small updates to the main website shortly, and I'm working on getting a map up to show where we now have Citizens all over the world.

In other good news we have Citizens working on forming at least three Provinces now. Effort is continuing to bring Byzantium Novum into the "real world". Local, face-to-face Byzantine community is crucial to all of this so it's great to see interest in building locally. It is my sincere hope that by this time next year, local gatherings and meetings will be happening regularly in some of our Byzantine Provinces!

In closing I'd like to give my sincere thanks to everyone who is participating, and just as importantly, to everyone who is continuing to be patient as Byzantium Novum grows. We grow and become a bit stronger every month... but we're still in a precarious position. Our community still exists mostly on the Internet, where "instant gratification" is the standard. It has been wonderful to see that folks here understand that building a community takes time and regular participation. Thank you all! :)

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator

Sunday, May 16, 2010

New Militarium Sodalitas

Byzantium Novum now has a Militarium Sodalitas, which is being run by Senator Marcus Minucius Audens who holds the position of Praefectus Castorum in the Militarium.

The Sodalitas Militarium is dedicated to the study and historical reenactment of the military aspects of the Byzantine empire. Join today - Byzantium Novum needs YOU!

The Militarium list is located here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ByzantiumNovumMilitarium/


The Militarium page of Byzantium Novum is here:

http://www.byzantiumnovum.org/militarium.htm

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

New Latin Language Sodalitas

Byzantium Novum now has a Latin Sodalitas (special interest group): Sodalitas Latinas Byzantia, located at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SodalitasLatinaByzantia/

This Sodalitas is for people wanting to learn, study, read and share the Latin Language in a group setting.

The ancient Eastern Roman Empire was primarily Greek - however it's governmental language was Latin. Latin was also used throughout Byzantine history for communicating with the West, and one was not considered fully educated until they knew both Greek and Latin.

This first language group is an excellent addition to the cultural content of Byzantium Novum, and we hope that Citizens will make use of this wonderful resource!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Biblotetheca Byzantia - New Byzantine Literature Sodalitas

Byzantium Novum now has a Literature Sodalitas, Biblotetheca Byzantia, dedicated to exploring primary and secondary resources of Byzantine Literature.


Participants are encouraged to delve in the subjects of all facets of Literature regarding the Byzantine Empire. Including the following: History, Poetry, Fiction, and also the works of writers famous within that time period. Members are also encouraged to write and post their own written work.

You are invited to check out this new group! Biblotetheca Byzantia is located at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BiblotethecaByzantia/

Monday, April 5, 2010

Byzantium Novum is now on Facebook

Byzantium Novum is now on Facebook!

This great resource is helping to spread the word about Byzantium Novum! Check us out at:
http://www.facebook.com/ByzantiumNovum

We're always looking for new Friends with an interest in Byzantine history and civilization so we hope to see you!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

March updates...

So far this month several of the Byzantium Novum pages have had small updates. Work on the Consitituion and the historical Byzantine magistracies is ongoing in the Senate. Some new Citizen introductions are being done in the main forum... if you're a member of the Byzantium Novum list be sure to introduce yourself!

New Citizens have continued to join, and Byzantium Novum has expanded some of its online advertizing to keep this new Nation growing. We gained 20 new Citizens in our first month which is excellent!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Under Construction: Byzantine Government

We are currently discussing some ideas for setting up a restored Byzantine Government on the main Nova Byzantium list. Here are some updates on ideas being debated:

1. We are considering setting up a division between the concept of state and government. In other words the State would be the expression of Byzantium itself, while government would be the day-to-day business of administration of the nation.

With this idea the State would be mostly concerned with identity and symbolism and would be presided over by an Emperor and/or Empress, who would have a public role but would not be in control of the government. The Governement would be presided over by the Senate and magistracies, and would do the business of running and administrating Byzantium Novum.

This is a departure from ancient Byzantium which was both ruled and goverened by the Emperor and levels of advisors. However, it both retains ancient positions and allows a modern representative system of government to flourish in the new Byzantine world.

2. We have also been discussing appointing a "Steward" to fill the role of Emperor or Empress for the present, so that the position of full ruler could be held open for an actual descendent of Byzantine Nobility. Having a member of a legitimate ancient family as Emperor or Empress would ensure continuity between ancient and "new" Byzantium... but the seat of state leader would not remain empty until the position could be properly filled.

3. We are also beginning to discuss magistracies. These changed quite a bit over the more than thousand years of Byzantine history! We are not duty bound to choose from only one era, but will try to make a rational blending of all periods using what works best for our actual needs.

Once the basic positions of government are decided on, we will be creating the first Constitution of Byzantium Novum. We intend to make the Constitution as simple and straightforward as possible. An ongoing goal of Byzantium Novum is to keep "laws and lawmaking" to a minimum. Instead our hope is to focus on growth and manifesting Byzantine civilization in the real world.

In the meantime it is good to see positive discussion in the forums, and so far everyone seems to be "on the same page" with things. Byzantium Novum is so far doing quite well!

Monday, February 15, 2010

New Citizens!

Greetings all,

I'm pleased to say that we have had several new Citizens join in the last few days. Welcome, everyone!

The Byzantium Novum website is showing up in the search engines now... and word has gone out to some of the various historical discussion lists as well. Word is getting out there!

-Marcus Cassius Julianus

Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Micronation of Byzantium Novum

This is the official "web log" for Byzantium Novum at Blogger.com. This is an official blog for Byzantine news and information from the Micronation of Byzantium Novum.

www.byzantiumnovum.org

What is a MicroNation? Check out our Micronation information at:
www.byzantiumnovum.org/micronation.htm


The Byzantium Novum website was launched on 2/2/2010. It has started to be picked up by the search engines on 2/10/2010. New Citizens are already joining!

This 'blog will contain periodic updates on Byzantium Novum. News about events and gatherings will also be posted here.

Stay tuned for more Byzantium Novum news!